The player agents of footballer Emiliano Sala who died while flying over the English Channel have fended off an application to wind up the company.
Mercato Sports – registered in the names of Mark McKay and Janie McKay, the wife of his businessman father Willie McKay – appeared at the High Court in London to face an application from HM Revenue and Customs.
The company was mentioned briefly at the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Court at the Rolls Building in central London.
A barrister for HMRC told the court: “The debt has been paid. The petition is dismissed with costs.”
The amount of debt owed was not mentioned in court.
Businesses can be issued with the notice and forced to liquidate all of its assets if it fails to repay a debt of more than £750 within 21 days of being asked for it.
The company is just one of four that represented Argentine-born striker Emiliano Sala.
Sala’s single-engined flight disappeared on January 21 and both Mark and Willie McKay confirmed in statements they were involved in arranging the flight from Nantes to Cardiff free of charge.
Part-time engineer Dave Ibbotson, 59, was at the controls when the Piper Malibu is believed to have crashed.
His body has still not been recovered. Sala’s body was discovered inside the plane by investigators searching the sea bed on February 3.
By Adela Whittingham